Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will start wearing body cameras to record their interactions with migrants and the public in five U.S. cities, acting ICE Director P.J. Lechleitner announced on Wednesday.
After a six-month pilot program was deemed successful, ICE will start requiring officers working with Homeland Security Investigations as well as those responsible for arresting and deporting migrants to wear cameras on their uniforms in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Buffalo and Detroit.
“This is promoting transparency and maintaining the public’s trust,” Lechleitner said.
The program makes good on a 2022 executive order signed by President Joe Biden to mandate the adoption of body-worn camera policies for all federal law enforcement agencies.
But without more money from Congress, Lechleitner said, ICE will not be able to expand the use of body-worn cameras beyond those five cities.
Lechleitner said ICE is facing a budget shortfall unless Congress appropriates more money. The appropriations bill through which the agency is currently funded is set to expire on March 22.
Without more funding, ICE is facing a $500 million budget gap and will have to start cutting “key operations,” including detention and deportation of migrants, by May, sources told NBC News.
ICE is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security. Four law enforcement agencies overseen by the Justice Department — the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshals — have said they are rolling out the use of body cameras by law enforcement in specific cities, as NBC News previously reported. The Justice Department said it is “committed to full implementation,” but the agencies have not yet adopted the use of body cameras on a widespread basis.
